


Stranger Danger

by jonnyhustle



Series: Meet-Cute AUs [2]
Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: Alive Laura Hale, Alternate Universe - No Hale Fire, Alternate Universe - No Powers, Businessman Derek, Child Erica, Child Isaac, Gen, Kid Fic, M/M, Single Parent Stiles Stilinski, Single Parents
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-08
Updated: 2014-11-08
Packaged: 2018-02-24 14:08:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,630
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2584172
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jonnyhustle/pseuds/jonnyhustle
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>
  <b>The one where Stiles’ daughter prays on poor, unsuspecting businessmen in Central Park. Well, one businessman in particular. She just wants to know what he’s reading.</b>
</p><p>'“You said not to talk to strangers if they come up to me! He’s not coming up to me. I wanna go up to him.”</p><p>The girl says, voice so defiant that Derek has to laugh.</p><p>“Kid, I’m sorry, but no. I bet his parents told him all about stranger danger too. What if he has to go home and tell his mom and dad that he let a stranger talk to him?”'</p>
            </blockquote>





	Stranger Danger

When Derek first started his job, he spent his lunch breaks in his office. He didn’t mind it. He actually enjoyed the fact that this meant he’d be able to go home earlier if he just worked straight through. 

Now, though, Derek spends his break in Central Park with a black coffee, his Kindle and no overbearing sisters. Staying in the office isn’t even worth the early mark, especially considering he shares an apartment with Laura as well as an office. 

He’s reading Red Dragon today, but has trouble concentrating as parents and their kids play around him. He feels overdressed, sitting in the park wearing a three-piece suit whilst almost everyone around him is dressed in shirts, shorts and flip-flops. The family closest to him just pretty much aren’t wearing clothes at all. 

A man, who looks young enough to be the older brother if Derek hadn’t already heard the kids yell out “Dad! Daddy!” in attempts to get his attention, is spread out on a Star Trek towel wearing nothing but a pair of aviators and board shorts. There’s a little boy on his right side, looks as if he’s six or seven, wearing exactly the same as his dad but in fluorescent shades of green. Even the towel he’s sprawled across is green. 

Honestly, he’s so bright Derek has to shield his eyes as he peers curiously over the top of his Kindle. 

On the man’s other side is a little girl, perhaps a bit younger than the boy, wearing a foil mermaid bathing suit. It takes Derek a couple of seconds to realise that the towel she’s perched on is the periodic table of elements. 

He snorts to himself, looking over each member of the family.

They’re bathing in the sun, chattering amongst themselves about different things. It’s almost as if they’re talking at one another, rather than with. They’re close enough for Derek to hear easily, but are still talking quietly enough that it’d be easy to tune them out if he wanted to keep reading. He doesn’t. His curiosity is piqued. 

“I just want to know what he’s doing,” the girl whines, sitting up and pushing at her father.

“He’s reading,” the dad says, shooting a cursory glance at Derek.

Derek looks down, knowing that there’s no way he’ll be able to focus now that they’re talking about him.

“But what’s he reading?” 

Her voice is high-pitched, like she’s seconds away from throwing a temper tantrum. Derek doesn’t understand what there is to cry about, but he supposes a kid would find a reason. He’s spent enough time on Reasons My Son Is Crying. He knows better than to think children are rational creatures.

“I don’t know, kid, but what have I told you about stranger danger?” 

The man’s voice is stern, but there’s a smirk pulling at his lips that makes it obvious he’s amused by the conversation. He’s so immersed on lecturing the daughter that he doesn’t even notice the other child has sat up, is slowly making an escape toward the playground. 

Derek doesn’t know if he should say something, but what could he do? Interrupt a lecture on stranger danger to say he has been watching this man’s kids and one of them is making an escape? A practical example for the girl, maybe, but not something he wants to enact. Besides, the kid is seriously glowing as he runs across the grass. It’d take the father approximately 0.03 seconds to find him as soon as he looks to the right. 

“You said not to talk to strangers if they come up to me! He’s not coming up to me. I wanna go up to him.” 

The girl says, voice so defiant that Derek has to laugh. 

“Kid, I’m sorry, but no. I bet his parents told him all about stranger danger too. What if he has to go home and tell his mom and dad that he let a stranger talk to him?” 

“Daaaad!” The girl whines ago, only this time she throws herself across her father’s back.

Derek laughs again. He quickly looks out for the boy as well, just to make sure he’s not getting into trouble while the father is busy parenting the other kid. 

The father groans, “Why can’t you just behave like your brother? He doesn’t want to pray on poor, unsuspecting businessmen.”

The girl frowns, silent for only a second before she starts giggling.

Derek watches as the man’s eyes immediately narrow, shrugs his daughter off from his back.

“What’s funny?” 

“Isaac’s on the playground.” 

“WHAT?”

His voice is loud, unamused. He draws several looks from the families around him, lingers on Derek for just a second before he turns back to his daughter.

“Right, you are going to stay here, aren’t you?”

The girl nods.

From where Derek’s sitting, he can see that she has her fingers crossed behind her back. 

He sighs, feeling sorry for the father but finally turns back to his Kindle. Red Dragon has been slow, but it’s been interesting to compare it to Hannibal. He kind of just wants it to be the weekend so he can marathon the first season again. 

He checks his watch, there’s only fifteen minutes of his break left.

He resolutely ignores the sound of somebody approaching him. He doesn’t need to look up to know who it is. 

She takes a seat on the opposite side of the bench. When Derek looks up, she blinks innocently at him. He reads another line. She slides over an inch. He locks the screen of his Kindle, and faces him. She’s practically pressed to his side.

“I’m Erica, what’s your name?” and then before he even gets a chance to answer, “what are you reading?” 

Her voice is loud and curious. He doesn’t understand where kids get their confidence.

Derek was always shy, but Laura never was. He remembers always getting Laura to ask his parents for extra candy because he never could. Laura had to ask for help when they got lost at Disney World, because Derek had already been crying. This girl, this little girl who is glancing up at Derek like he holds the secrets of the universe, reminds him of the person his sister used to be before she terrorised him into leaving his office on breaks. 

“Derek, and Red Dragon,” he says, gesturing to his Kindle. 

He decides to just leave it at that rather than trying to explain the plot or add any further detail. There’s no good way to explain a sociopathic psychiatrist with cannibalistic tendencies, and a mentally unstable criminal profiler. 

She’d probably understand about zero of those words, anyway. 

“Is it about dragons?” 

“Well, no,” Derek answers, searching the playground for the girl’s brother and father.

He spots them stalking toward the last member of their family; Erica. The father’s face looks furious. The little boy is stifling a laugh behind his fist. 

The girl follows his gaze, pouting when she notices what Derek’s been looking at.

“Your dad’s gonna be mad at you, huh?” He asks, awkwardly fumbling around for an appropriate way to talk to a child. 

“Erica Leia Stilinski,” the man says, sounding a little hysterical, as soon as he gets close enough, the son perched on his hip because he kept dragging his feet, “what do you think you’re doing?” 

“I just wanted to know what he was reading!” 

The man groans, reaching for his daughter and pulling her off of the bench. 

“I am so sorry,” the man apologies, “I want to say that their behaviour makes me think that they were swapped out at the hospital or something because no child of mine could possibly behave this way, but yeah, I actually think this removes any doubt.” 

He’s laughing, but it’s just on the wrong side of self-deprecating. 

Derek shakes his head, “she was fine. Like she said, she only wanted to know what book I was reading.” 

The man turns to his daughter, raises an eyebrow, “Well, did you find out?” 

She nods, frowning as she struggles to recall the title.

“I forgot,” she admits, eyes downcast.

The father laughs, “of course you did.” 

“Red Dragon,” Derek admits, “not about dragons,” he adds on as soon as he notices the boy’s eyes widening. 

“You didn’t tell her what it’s about, did you?” The father asks, casting worried looks to his daughter as if he thinks Derek is going to confess to a small child that sometimes people eat other people. 

The girl shakes her head. Her father relaxes.

“I’ve got to get back to work,” Derek says, looking at his watch, “I hope you enjoy the rest of your afternoon.”

He kneels down, holds out his hand to shake, “It was nice to meet you, Erica.” 

“You too, Mr. Derek,” she says, throwing her arms around him in a hug. 

Derek stands up awkwardly, feels uncomfortable under her father’s gaze. 

“Again, I’m really sorry… Derek, was it?” 

“Derek Hale,” Derek says, shaking the man’s hand as well, “Derek’s fine.”

“I’m Stiles Stilinski,” he cocks his hip, gesturing to his son, “and this is Isaac.” 

Derek grins when Stiles does. They both laugh when Isaac frowns, tucking his head into his dad’s chest out of embarrassment. 

It’s not the last time Derek runs into the Stilinski family. Not even the only time one of the kids sneak away to chat to Derek, but it is the first time they meet. 

It is, however, the story they bring up three and a half years later. Derek will be gruff and short due to nerves, and Stiles will have lost his voice halfway through the night, but their friends and family will still be able to hear them exchange vows.

**Author's Note:**

> Constructive criticism (and prompts) is (are) appreciated.
> 
> Book recommendations are also very much appreciated as I just finished Red Dragon and don't have anything else to read.
> 
> Tumblr is reluctantvillain.


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